United Counties of Prescott and Russell (UCPR) Council has unanimously supported a motion adopted by Eastern Ontario’s county wardens opposing the proposed Alto high-speed rail project in its current form.
The Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus (EOWC) met in Kingston on March 19 and adopted a motion noting the estimated cost of the project is 60 to $90 billion with only one stop proposed in Eastern Ontario (Ottawa) and alleging that the project will benefit urban residents at the cost of rural residents and lands.
The motion reads that the proposed project will traverse and impact Eastern Ontario communities, infrastructure, residential and agricultural lands, municipal trails, and environmentally sensitive areas, and with no long-term economic benefits. It further reads that the closure and/or dead ending of roads will have significant ongoing and unknown costs to municipalities, as well as service delivery and emergency response implications to residents and businesses. The EOWC motion further states that Eastern Ontario municipalities and residents have not received sufficient detailed information regarding potential local impacts, including land use, environmental effects, municipal infrastructure interfaces, and long-term financial or operational implications.
The EOWC states in the motion that it and its member municipalities are actively trying to engage with Alto through a truly meaningful consultation process to understand the impacts of both proposed high speed rail train routes to our residents, lands, trails, and businesses.
As a result of the concerns and interest for active engagement with Alto, the EOWC formally opposes the ALTO project in its current form, and that its opposition is based on concerns related to insufficient municipal consultation, unclear rural and small-urban impacts, potential environmental effects, and alignments with existing Eastern Ontario planning and infrastructure priorities.
The EOWC is advocating that the federal Government and Alto fully explore train route options along existing infrastructure corridors, such as VIA Rail and/or Highway 401.
UCPR Chief Administrative Officer Stéphane Parisien, who attended the Kingston EOWC meeting with UCPR Warden Mario Zanth, said there was a lot of discussion and concerns at that meeting about not necessarily the train itself but how the process is unfolding and the lack of information about where the corridor will be. He said concerns were also expressed about the availability of information at Alto open houses.
Parisien described the motion as a “show of union? He said Zanth was instrumental in having the EOWC motion adopted and that the organization thought it was better to take stand on Alto now than later.
